Method or process of making wire cables



(No Model.)

- A. J. M OXHAM.

METHOD 0R PROCESS OF MAKING WIRE GABLES.

No. 337,513. Patented Mar. 9, 1886.

UNITED STATES PATENT O FICE.

ARTHUR J. MOXHAM, OF JOHNSTOWVN, PENNSYLVANIA.

METHOD O R PROCESS OF MAKING W'IRE CABLES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent. No. 337,513, dated March 9, 1886.

Application filed September 17, 1884. Serial No. M3336. (X specimens.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR J. hIOXHAM, of Johnstown, in the county of Cambria and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Method or Process of Making Wire Cables, which invention is fully set forth and illustratedin the following specification and accompanying drawings.

The object oftbis invention is to make a wire cable which shall have, with a certain degree of elasticity, a greatly increased durability, particularly when used as a traction-cablefor cable railways.

The invention consists in the method ofmannfacture, as hereinafter described, and particularly set forth in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 shows in cross-section a cable manufactured by my said method. Fig. 2 showsin crosssection a cable made by the same process havingtwo series of strands. Fig. 6 shows in cross-section av cable having two series of strands, one ofthe series being of solid wire and the other of finer laid up wires. Fig. 4 shows in side view a piece of finished cable madelike Fig. 1.

- Fig: 5 illustrates a piece of one strand of each cable coiled or twisted before being laid up with the other strands forming the cable. Fig. 3 shows in crosssectioir a cable with a flexible core.

The cables illustrated in said figures (except Fig. 6) are made up of solid strands, preferably treated cold in the process of making the cables.

Itjs preferable to treat such wires in their cold state for the following reasons:

First. In order to prevent the destruction of the center or core when one is employed, if such core, as is usually the case, be made of material incapable of resisting destruction by contact with heated metal.

Second. If twisted or laid up hot, the set given to the metal wire becomes a dead-set. Such set is for many purposes a great disadvantage, and especially in cables for traction purposes, which cables should retain a certain degree of elasticity.

Third. It is very difficult to heat masses of metal of such small sectional area as compose the wires of'a cable to a uniform temperature.

Every slight change in temperature, even below that which in itselfwould destroy or burn the metal, will efiectadifference inthetension of its particles. Such deterioration is entirely avoided by transforming the wire into helices while cold. There is therefore lack of homogeneity of metal in the strands composing a hot twisted cable. There is also always present the risk or danger of overheating, and although a single wire is small ofitself in mass,

yet it forms relatively a large part or section ofa cable. Thousands of lineal feet of wire are thus laid up in every cable; hence the risk of overheating is verygreat, and ifoverheated at many points there will be just so many points ofgreat lack of homogeneity in the cable liable to rupture if used; but a cable of solid strands of wire cannot be made even cold in the ordinary way. If the straight wires be wound or twisted when cold directly around an interior flexible core, said core cannot resist the tendency of each wire not to aecom modate itself to its new shape--in other words, to untwist.

In order to obviate all theabove-named difficulties and disadvantages, my method of constructing wire cables is as follows: Each individual wire is first coiled around a mandrel of suitable form and diameter,or otherwise coiled or twisted by any suitable machinery to a given pitch. This pitch should be slightly less than that which the wire will assume when laid up in the cable, and the internal diameter of such coil also should be smaller than that of the core to be used in the cable when a core is used. These coiled or helical wires are then (each series where more than one series is used) a ed separately instead of together, and then laid to each other when the cable is being made, and thus the cable is caused to maintain a-certain force within itself, which tends to retain the various coils together, and thus to resist any tendency in the strands to open or unwind when the cable is in use. This practice will by tension in laying up overcome any little irregularity in the helices and leave in the made-upcable the live force desired.

It is manifest, however, that, if desired, the

. helices can be made of exact diameter and pitch to lay up properly without affecting the resulting cable disadvantageously. Such a cawhich wire cables have heretofore been put; but the increasing useiof wire cables for trac.- .35

. ble is therefore notonl y elastic and compact, but can be constructed devoid of any core 'at all, thus forming a hollow flexible tube com-.

posed of helices mutually coherent; Such construction may be used for many purposes where no core is necessary.

In the several figures of thedrawings the vroletter A, Figs. 1, 3, 4, and 6, indicates a'flexible core of hemp or other flexible material; B, the external solid strands of wire; b, Fig, 2, one series'of internal solid strands of wire; and c, Fig. 6, indicates a series of internal laid-up strands of fine wires of ordinary construction.

The advantages of a cable made as herein described can best be set forth by a short comparative description of the ordinary methods of making wire rope cables and of some of the defects inherentin such cables, which it-is the object of this invention to obviate.

The ordinary wire cable or rope for general useis usually niadein the following manner: A number of fine wires are firstlaid up or twisted together into asmall rope or strand arounda core. A nnmberof these smalls strands, such as shown at c, Fig. G'farethen laid up or twisted together around a flexible hemp corQe as a common center, and thus formfia conipleted rope or cable.- This construction has been found well adapted to the general usesto tion purposes has opened new fields of service of comparatively recent date, and it hasbeen.

, found that the'ordinary construct-ion above described is not, welladapted for many purposes. The-friction and abrasion to which the when such cables are used for traction purposes quickly destroy such wires with the consequent efl'ect that the strands being thus injured the wires partially unwind and open out, causing the. cable to bunch or become enlarged and out of truth whereversuch injuries occur. The cable is'thus soon rendered unfit .for use.

. To remedy the abovementioneddefect, the

solid strands of wire of comparatively large diameter above described are usedin ,the cable herein described as the subject of this invention.

No claim is herein made for any core as an article of manufacture. such aclaim being now embodied in my pending application Serial purposes set forth.

2. The method ofmaking wirecables having solid exterior strands hereinbefore described,- consisting in first forming each individual solid strand into'a' helix when cold, and then winding or laying up said strands together into a cable over an interior or core, substantially as and for they purposes set forth.

' d A. J. MOXHAM.

, Witnesses:

CHARLES P. LATTING, GEO; G. AUsTiN.

I It is hereby certified'that in Letters Patent N o. 337,513, grant March 9, 1886, upon the application of Arthur J M oxham, of Johnstown, Penn; l.a, for an improvement in The Method or Brocess of Makin g Wire Cables, an errbr appears in the printed specification requiring correction as follows: In line 54, page 2, the word core should read cable,- and that the Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the samemay conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed,countersigned, and sealed this-30th-da'y of March,'A. D. 1886. v I

[SEAL-1 y g H. L. MULDROW, I Acti Secreta -o 'thelten'o. gOountersigned: ml r M. V. MONTGOMERY, Q I d Gorhmiesioner o Patents. 

